Hillary Clinton: `Don’t Believe… That’s Something I Will Do Again’

Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretary of state, observes a moment of silence during a wreath-laying ceremony ahead of the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in Perth, Australia.

Read my lips — Hillary Clinton’s response to the idea of running for president again.

“I’ve said I really don’t believe that that’s something I will do again,” she says in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters. “I am so grateful I had the experience of doing it before.”

When pressed, however, ABC reports, the soon-retiring secretary of state, Democrat candidate for president in 2008, former senator from New York and former first lady, “does admit” that if she did choose to run again in 2016 she would not be concerned about her age. Recently having turned 65, Clinton would be 77 years old at retirement if she were to win and hold office for two terms.

“I am, thankfully, knock on wood, not only healthy, but have incredible stamina and energy,” she says in the interview for the program, “Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2012,” airing tonight at 9:30 pm EST. “I just want to see what else is out there. I’ve been doing, you know, this, this incredibly important and, and satisfying work here in Washington, as I say, for 20 years, I want to get out and spend some time looking at what else I can do to contribute.”

If she chose to reconsider, a Bloomberg National Poll out today shows, she’d have a considerable advantage over the known potential competitors at this time.

She is among the most popular members of the Obama administration, with 70 percent of Americans holding a positive view of Clinton, compared with 55 percent voicing a favorable opinion of Obama and 48 percent a positive view of Vice President Joe Biden.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, another potential Democratic nominee, is rated favorably as a nominee by 29 percent of the public and 40 percent of Democrats. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff for Obama, is rated favorably as a nominee by 19 percent of Americans and 32 percent of Democrats. The poll of all respondents has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.